2011 - An Eventful kalmstrom.com Year

The year 2011 was a year full of action when it comes to world politics, and at the end of the year we have many worries and unanswered questions. You know them as well as I do, so here I will instead concentrate on kalmstrom.com. That makes it possible for me to write a happier blog!

120 blog posts in 2011
One year is a long time in the IT business, where changes happen quickly and we hear news nearly every day. In 2011 I wrote 119 blog articles, except this one, and most of them were about kalmstrom.com events. If you want more info about something I mention here, just use the Search function to the left to find the post or posts.

New staff
In the beginning of 2011 several new people joined the team, and this has had ‒ and will have ‒ a strong impact on the kalmstrom.com software. Most visible has of course been the work of graphic designer Jitendra Joshi, but our three new developers has contributed just as much.

Silver Competencies
One of the new developers, Vijayant Rimza, has tested our products for a Microsoft Silver Partnership. They passed the tests, and as we also fulfilled the other qualifications we could gain no less than two Silver Competencies, first Independent Software Vendor and then Business Intelligence. A warm thank you from the whole team to the Community Members who helped us with references for Microsoft. The Silver competencies, together with Peter’s personal Microsoft certifications, make kalmstrom.com Business Solutions stand out on the market, and we have already noticed an increased interest for our Office applications.

Product updates
All kalmstrom.com products have been updated, and most of them several times. HelpDesk OSP for Outlook and SharePoint and the resource booking application Calendar Browser have new major version numbers, V3 and V7, and PF HelpDesk has reached both 11.2 and 11.3. kalmstrom.com Outlook add-ons, The kalmstrom.com tool for time reporting from within the Outlook calendar had version 4.3 the whole year, but in January 2012 we plan to release kalmstrom.com Outlook add-ons, TimeCard V4.4 with new, interesting features.

iOS apps
During 2011 kalmstrom.com Business Solutions also published two apps for iPhone, iPad and iPod: iNameDays gives you name days in the standard calendar, and with ShareTask you get the SharePoint tasks into your handheld and can manage them with a finger.

Extended compatibility
When Microsoft introduces new platforms the kalmstrom.com developers are usually quick in making our products compatible. In 2011 we extended our product support to Office 365, and the Windows Azure database was added as a third alternative for our Outlook issue tracking tool PF HelpDesk. We also started the development of a new application, HelpDesk OSP Azure, which we first will use for the kalmstrom.com support before we start marketing it.

New Partner
In May kalmstrom.com begun cooperating with a new partner, and for the first time ever we agreed to market a product that is not our own: PamFax. Peter was involved in the development of the first version of this convenient tool for online faxing when he was product manager at Skype, though, and we also use it ourselves. I translated the application into Swedish, and our new Sales and Relations Officer, Siret Toots, made the Estonian translation.

More extensive Tips section
The Tips section of the kalmstrom.com website is popular, and during the year we have added a number of new articles. By the end of 2011 Peter made a series of demonstrations for various useful tricks with Excel and SharePoint.

Now we look forward to the new year with great confidence. There is no crisis in kalmstrom.com! I will come back with a blog post about future development next week, and until then I wish all blog readers a great New Years Eve!

NameDays And iNameDays New Press Releases Are Out

One of the steps that must be taken when releasing a new version of a product is to write a press release and submit it to a few good press release sites. Now when both NameDays and iNameDays are updated for 2012, we also have new press releases for them.

News
In both press releases we of course mention the news: the name days for the year 2012 and the addition of the French name days. Earlier we covered only 2010 and 2011, so an upgrade to 2012 was necessary now that we are soon there. We are happy that we also could add the name days for France this time, and it is our ambition to add more countries in future releases.

NameDays press release
The NameDays press release begins with a quote that expresses the delight people often feel when someone remembers their name day. This is something we hear a lot from grateful NameDays users. We also mention that this free product can be used not only with Outlook but also with iCal, Yahoo! or Google Calendar.

iNameDays press release
In the iNameDays press release we explain why the iNameDays icon has number 23 on it. The app that puts name days in the default calendar of iPad, iPod touch and iPad was the first app from kalmstrom.com Business Solutions, and even if you have to pay a small sum to get it from App Store it has become very popular. There are more name days apps on the market, but as far as we know iNameDays is the only one that does not create a new calendar but instead puts the name days in the calendar people use for other notes and appointments.

For website visitors
The kalmstrom.com press releases are not only meant for the media but also for visitors to our website. They give a special kind of product presentation that we hope is interesting to read as a complement to our other documentation. It would be interesting to hear if we are right or wrong, so any comments are welcome!

Congratulations To kalmstrom.com Matriarch With New iNameDays

The beautiful old woman in the photo is my mother, Ingalill. Today is her name day, and as we consider Ingalill the kalmstrom.com Matriarch we are happy to give her a special gift for the iPad she uses every day: the 2012 version of iNameDays, which was approved for release a few hours ago ‒ right on time!

iNameDays is an app you may all share with Ingalill. It adds name days to the default iOS calendar, which is the calendar you normally use in your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch. You don't have to create a separate calendar to see the name days of your choice. This year we have added the French name days, so now you have 14 name days (+ Swedish week numbers) to select from.

I have earlier mentioned Ingalill's great interest for new technologies in the blog post post "... 93 years old and loves her iPad". Another interest is picking mushrooms, and in the photo she is preparing mushrooms she has herself picked in the woods. As you understand this spirited Matriarch is a great source of inspiration to the younger members of the kalmstrom.com clan! Our warm congratulations!

Farewell To Apple Innovator And Visionaire

The day after Apple presented their new iPhone, I heard the sad news that Steve Jobs had passed away. The news was given to me by kalmstrom.com Lead Deveoper Jayant Rimza together with a quote from eBay India: "You left a mark on our eyes, ears and fingers. RIP Steve Jobs."

Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak founded Apple in 1976, after these two visionaries had built the Apple 1 logic board in a garage and Jobs had sold his minibus to get startup money. The road has not been smooth, but with Jobs as CEO, Apple has become one of the major players in our business and an important competitor to Microsoft.

The reactions to Steve Jobs' death have been extensive. Politicians and company leaders as well as common users of the Apple products have paid tribute to Steve Jobs, and people have gathered in Apple stores around the world. President Obama called the Apple cofounder one of America’s greatest innovators and praised him for having changed the way each of us sees the world.

Even though kalmstrom.com Business Solutions mostly develop for Microsoft platforms, we are grateful for the existence of Apple. The rivalry between these two giants has given us all better products. Microsoft founder Bill Gates says about his friend: "The world rarely sees someone who has had the profound impact Steve has had, the effects of which will be felt for many generations to come."